Little Suite in the Old Style

• Ponce’s Petite suite dans le style ancien is scored for string trio. It was published in 1959.¹
  • Corvera’s Bio-Bibliography of Ponce states that this piece was known by 1927.² Other sources date the suite to 1933,³ the year that Ponce left France to return to Mexico. The French title, and the work’s neoclassical influence, suggests that it is connected to Ponce’s studies in France between 1925-1933.⁴ Neoclassicism was popular in Parisian music circles at the time; for example, in the post-war music of Stravinsky.⁵
• The final movement, “Fughetta,” is based on a theme by J.S. Bach⁶ (though he didn’t specify which).⁷

Movements

1. Prelude 
2. Canon 
3. Air 
4. Fughetta ⁸  

1. “Petite suite dans le style ancien (Ponce, Manuel),” IMSLP, accessed July 7, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Petite_suite_dans_le_style_ancien_(Ponce,_Manuel). 
2. Jorge Barrón Corvera, Manuel Maria Ponce: A Bio-Bibliography, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 44.
3. “Petite suite dans le style ancien (Ponce, Manuel),” IMSLP, accessed July 7, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Petite_suite_dans_le_style_ancien_(Ponce,_Manuel). 
4. Ricardo Miranda Pérez, “Ponce (Cuéllar), Manuel” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 7, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022072. 
5. Stephen S. Trott, “Petite suite dans le style ancien,” Boise Philharmonic (February 17, 2021), https://boisephil.org/program-notes/petite-suite/. 
6. Manuel Ponce, Petite suite dans le style ancien (New York: PeerMusic, 1959), 10.
7. If anyone recognizes this Bach theme, let me know and I’ll add that info to this page. I haven’t found it yet!
8. “Petite suite dans le style ancien (Ponce, Manuel),” IMSLP.